George Zimmerman: State 'devastated' again
The Orlando Sentinel ^ | July 3, 2013 | Hal Boedeker
Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2013 11:49:01 PM by 2ndDivisionVet
Capt. Alexis Carter of U.S. Army JAG testifies Wednesday at the George Zimmerman trial.
How bad was it for the state at the George Zimmerman trial Wednesday morning? Bad, then maybe better, TV analysts said.
WFTV-Channel 9's Bill Sheaffer said Capt. Alexis Carter, Zimmerman's former teacher at Seminole State College, was "devastating" to the state’s case.
Carter "legitimized the very defense of self-defense in front of these jurors, and the state -- you could see the blood draining from their faces," Sheaffer said.
WKMG-Channel 6's team marveled that Carter was giving a tutorial on the "stand your ground" law to jurors. Legal analyst Eric Dubois said it was "another state witness that just kind of blew up and helped the defense a lot."
WKMG's Mike DeForest wondered: "How much money is George Zimmerman saving by letting the state witnesses present their testimony?"
Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
WOFL-Channel 35 analyst Diana Tennis said defense attorney Don West had turned Carter, a state witness, into a defense witness. "This was a little lesson for the jury that seemed to fit with the defense case," she said.
WFTV anchor Greg Warmoth wondered how the state could overcome its witness Carter.
"This is the state's case. You're not expecting that the case has to bounce back from anything," Sheaffer said. "The defense hasn't even presented its case yet."
Sheaffer later said that his heart went out to Trayvon Martin's family, but he was talking about the application of the law.
On CNN, there was a discussion about Zimmerman's laughing at one point during Carter's testimony. Drew Findling, a criminal defense attorney, said that the chuckling humanized Zimmerman.....
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